The history of Feudal West Asia

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Apocalyptic tradition in Islam: A dialog from the H-Mideast-Medieval list, June 1998. The development of the apocalyptics in the Early Islam, especially in the fields close to the Christian and Jewish traditions.
Chess: A dialog from the H-Mideast-Medieval list, September-October 1998. Concerning the history of chess in the Islamic world, the origins of the Queen piece in particular.
Question about Mamluks: A dialog from the H-Mideast-Medieval list, August 1998. How mamluks were transported from the steppes to the main centers of the Islamic Empires. The mamluk slave (for want of a better word) trade during the Ayyubid and early Mamluk periods.
Review of Sylvia Auld and Robert Hillenbrand, eds, Ottoman Jerusalem: The Living City 1517-1917: By William Dalrymple, The Guardian, 3 February 2001. The official Israeli line is to write off the entire Islamic period as a period of unmitigated decline, and to offer a highly dubious account of the creation of the modern state of Israel. Fortunately, this book is the closest we are ever likely to get to a definitive historical statement on the subject. It is the result of a major international project. Running to two volumes and 1,100 pages, it is a grand historical landmark, and must be the most detailed survey ever published of a Middle Eastern city.